Going to school at St. Edward’s in Texarkana, I graduated in 1961 in a class of just nine pupils. I have tried for years to track anyone from my school, to no avail. My school is not listed on most sites and I nearly gave up. However, after joining Who-Remembers-Me.com, I received an email from someone that went to my school. They graduated several years before me, but it was so exciting, I even cried!

I live so far away from where I went to school, that it has been impossible to return, to try to look anyone up personally. I have sent messages to businesses that were in the area, where some of my old classmates lived and never received a response.

I finally found a school friend of mine through the site, each year I had been in the same classroom with either his sister or his brother. We talked about the school, which burnt down during the Christmas holidays. It had originally been told that the boys in the class he was in had started the fire. It was later proven untrue, but it was always the main conversation for so many years, and as I was told, there were still some times this subject was brought up.

The telephone conversation, that I had with my friend, 2 hours and 22 minutes, was trying to cover the many years, since school. He has since lost his brother and sister, who were closer in age to me.

This connection thanks to you and your team has made me feel so wonderful, thank you again from the bottom of my heart.

I joined Who-Remembers-Me.com with the uncertain hope of stumbling across someone from my past. I put my name on the site thinking of friends when I was a teenager in high school. Little did I know that someone from junior school would get in touch!

Michael Sellers, a boy I sat next to at school nearly 60 years ago, then sent me a message.

I attended Hessle C of E Infants and Junior Schools, near Hull from 1949-1954. In 1952, my Dad was lost at sea in a Hull trawler and Michael Sellers, who was in my class at the time, recalls me sobbing in the classroom and being taken out of the room by the Headmistress. He has since told me he had been thinking about his school days and said he remembers the incident.

Over time, we have remembered class mates; in fact two of them are now married! We have enjoyed sharing stories about our school; we remember that the toilets were an outside block in the playground, and that in those days, boys and girls had separate playgrounds. We have even been able to share class photos that I had kept.

We have talked about our family; Michael has been married for 40 years and doesn't have any children. I have two sons, and I was widowed in 1992 but remarried in 2002.

It was so nice to be reminded of our childhood.

This month’s STAR STORY comes from Bob Paylor in Newcastle, who with a little help from Who-Remembers-Me.com, managed to trace and meet up with several ex-Army buddies from the Royal Scots Greys. Bob, 74, explains: “I joined the Army in 1956, aged 21. I was a member of the Royal Electrical & Mechanical Engineers or REME for short, which were attached to the Royal Scots Greys. It was our job to repair the tanks and equipment of the armoured regiments and in those days Prince Edward the Duke of Kent was in the Scots Greys; I looked after his tank! Admiral Ramsay’s son was also a junior lieutenant at the time.

We knew each other to say hello to but didn’t really socialise together. No, my friends were Alan, Don, Roland and John.

We all signed up more or less at the same time and first met while stationed at Catterick in Yorkshire. Like me, they too were electrical and mechanical engineers and if they weren’t busy repairing tanks, they’d be fitting guns or fixing radios.

Then in 1958 our regiment moved to Münster in Germany. In those days we were frightened of the Russians and so much of our time was spent on practice drills. We were often called out at 2 o’clock in the morning, only to be told to stand down again! Still, we had some fun. I remember on one occasion I was supposed to be in charge of a gang of chaps going out for a drink to a pub in Lüneberg. Unfortunately I had one too many that night and spent most of the evening fast asleep! Alan, Don, Roland, John and I stayed in Germany for a few years and then one by one we left the Army. John was the first to go and I followed shortly after. We last saw each other in 1959. I went back to mechanics, bought my own garage and repaired military vehicles under contract. I also married shortly after leaving the Army; Margaret and I met in 1960 and we’ve been together ever since. I suppose nostalgia more than anything prompted me to look for John and the others. Shortly after registering with WRM I found Alan in Ramsbottom, Roly in Newbury and Don in Manchester. However the real surprise came when I found John through the site – with a surname like Smith I didn’t think I stood a chance, but within days I received an email from John’s son!

I’ve since met up with Alan and John, which was wonderful after all this time, and I now hope to organise a proper reunion involving all five of us. Thanks again to WRM for putting us in touch – the site really does work!”